


personal

by dandelionlighters



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: 2x03, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:54:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26371507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dandelionlighters/pseuds/dandelionlighters
Summary: Maya was sure, now. The other girl was playing with her, and it probably wasn’t personal, but damn, it felt like it. It was personal the second her dark eyes snapped to Maya’s, personal in the way she arched a single, taunting eyebrow, personal in the curl of her pouty lips as they stretched into a smirk.And then, when the girl turned around to walk back to her team’s bench, Maya was forced to stare at the back of her head as she watched her go. She scowled once she caught sight of the red and black Mystic Falls ribbon in the brunette’s hair. Suddenly, Maya could think nothing but:Personal.
Relationships: Maya Machado/Josie Saltzman
Comments: 35
Kudos: 106





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> jumped off the hosie ship :)

Maya Machado sat at the back of the bus with her new friend, Hope Marshall. Both were listening to music with their earbuds, though Maya suspected that her friend was listening to something a little too dark and emo by the way she kept staring forlornly out of the window. 

With one last look of concern at the other girl, Maya turned away from watching her and stared back at her hands, which were playing with each other in her lap. Her eyes dimmed as she let her thoughts begin to wander. 

The truth was, Maya was nervous. She was always nervous before a game, and though this was only really a scrimmage, she could still feel her stomach cramping with the nerves of what was to come. 

She would never show it, of course, but something about today rubbed her the wrong way. Maybe it was the heavy weight sitting in her chest when she first woke up in the morning, or maybe it was the itch just underneath her skin in the locker room half an hour ago, but she didn’t have a good feeling. 

At all. 

Whatever. She would be fine. Mystic Falls had a history of winning against the Salvatore Boarding School, so she figured this game would be over and done with in no time. 

How wrong she was. 

Five minutes off the bus, Hope started to act weird and sketchy again. Maya always found the girl a little strange, but she tried not to judge. A part of her was even charmed by it and loved the mystery that came with being friends with her, so she refrained from asking any personal questions. 

It wasn’t like Hope asked many personal questions in return. Maya liked that about her. 

“First game jitters?” She bumped her shoulders with Hope’s to get her attention, a teasing smile on her lips. The other girl blinked and looked away from whatever she had been staring at in the distance. Maya didn’t bother to turn her head and see. 

“Uh, sure,” Hope said, still looking a little bit dazed. She lowered her voice, but for what reason Maya didn’t know. She could clearly still hear her. “Let’s go with that.” 

Maya chose to ignore it. 

“You’ll feel much better when we start playing, I promise,” she told her, dropping her sports backpack underneath their team’s bench and taking out a smaller bag. “Now, come on. Help me find a bathroom.” 

She peered around at the field, turning her head side to side in search of one. Near the other side of the bleachers, she could just barely make out a stone building with a bathroom sign plastered over the front. It looked...kind of shitty. 

_Rich boarding school my ass_ , she thought. 

Her eyes narrowed. “Preferably one with a mirror.” Hope shot her a curious look. Mayasimply smiled. With a shrug, she explained, “I want to look my best for when we kick their asses. Ethan said something about the yearbook club coming to take pre-season photos.” 

“And,” she added, very sarcastically, “as much as this uniform _really_ makes my eyes pop, a little mascara wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.” 

She held up the make-up bag in her hand with excitement. Hope looked vaguely amused. 

“You seem pretty confident that we’re going to win,” she said, head tilted thoughtfully. 

Maya frowned, just enough. “Aren’t you?” 

Hope smiled even wider, like she was thinking of an inside joke Maya wasn’t a part of. She did that a lot, Maya noticed. “Oh, no. I’m _sure_ not a single one of us could step foot on the field and we would still win.” 

Maya’s lip snapped down into a frown. “What makes you say that?” 

Hope’s blue eyes flashed with a brief instant of panic. Maya almost missed it. “Nothing,” the other girl rushed to say, cheeks flushed. Her eyes darted back and forth. “Hey, didn’t you say you needed to find a bathroom? I know one near here, actually.” 

She then turned around and practically ran away, in the exact opposite direction of the bathroom Maya had seen a minute ago. In fact, she was now headed to a different bathroom, which was indeed closer and something Maya had failed to notice earlier. 

She stood in the same spot for a long moment and watched Hope leave. Weird. When the moment passed, she hurried after the auburn-haired girl and called out, “I thought you said this was your first time here?” 

—

“Timberwolves of Mystic Falls, you may—as I believe they say—call it in the air.” 

Maya watched as the headmaster of the Salvatore Boarding School tossed a golden coin into the air. She stood on one side of the football field with Hope, while a dark-haired girl and boy stood facing them on the other side. 

Both were crossing their arms and looking down their noses at Maya and Hope, as if this game was beneath them or something. It unnerved Maya, especially since Hope couldn’t seem to stop staring at them and—

Okay. _Fine_. Maya could admit, at least to herself, that the two were attractive. It wasn’t like Maya was blind, even if the boy of the pair had a constipated look on his face and a bird’s nest of hair on his head. His eyes were pretty, though. Maybe that was why Hope kept looking at him like she would rather die than tear her gaze away. 

She was looking at the girl like that, too. Maya found herself doing the same, despite herself. It wasn’t like she was checking the brunette out or anything. It was just that she thought her hair was nice, and well, her eyes were nice, too, and so were her lips and her—

The Salvatore School headmaster tossed the coin up into the air. 

Seeing that Hope was too distracted to call out heads or tails or even know what those words _meant_ by the looks of it, Maya spoke up, “Heads.” 

Of course, it was only right, then, that the coin landed on tails. Maya huffed out a sigh and rolled her eyes. 

“Tails never fails,” the boy across from Hope said lamely. 

The girl next to him grinned, and Maya could have sworn in that moment that she shot Maya a wink. What the fuck? Was she playing with her or something? “We’ll take the ball.” 

Maya swallowed hard and turned her head over her shoulder to hide the dark blush scorching her cheeks. She hoped it was gone by the time she turned back. 

“So it begins,” the headmaster of the boarding school drawled, already walking away. He stopped for a second, but only to ask both schools’ captains to shake hands. 

The girl across from Maya offered up her hand with that same, anything-but-innocent smile on her face. Maya looked at it and hesitated, feeling stubborn. She almost walked away like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, before she relaxed her shoulders and decided not to embarrass herself. 

With narrowed eyes, she reached out and shook the other girl’s hand. 

Just as she tried to pull away, the other girl’s fingers clamped around her own in a death-grip. Maya was pretty sure she heard one of her knuckles pop, but she bit back her pain and gave the brunette a tight-lipped, fake smile. She only gripped her hand tighter, and smiled something even less innocent. 

Maya was sure, now. The other girl was playing with her, and it probably wasn’t personal, but damn, it felt like it. It was personal the second her dark eyes snapped to Maya’s, personal in the way she arched a single, taunting eyebrow, personal in the curl of her pouty lips as they stretched into a smirk. 

And then, when the girl turned around to walk back to her team’s bench, Maya was forced to stare at the back of her head as she watched her go. She scowled once she caught sight of the red and black Mystic Falls ribbon in the brunette’s hair. Suddenly, Maya could think nothing but:

_Personal_. 

“Do you know them?” She nodded her head off in the direction of the two captains. Hope went rigid. Maya didn’t think she was even breathing. She noticed that the other girl was thumbing the coin that had fallen to the grass. 

“No,” Hope murmured. She dropped the coin, and then walked away. Maya watched her with a frown. 

—

They were fucking _losing_. 

It was barely half an hour into the game, and the Salvatore Boarding School had already scored four touchdowns versus Mystic Falls’ one. 

“Damn,” Ethan muttered as his sister approached the bench, guzzling water down her throat. She did it too quickly and a few wet trails slipped past her lips and fell down her jaw. She didn’t care. “Jack said they would be easy.” 

It was more for himself than for Maya, but she didn’t care. “Yeah, well, Jack doesn’t know _jack_ shit.” 

Ethan gave her an amused look but shook his head. “Come on, you have to stay positive. We still have another half. Don’t let your attitude get the best of you.” 

He raised his eyebrows slyly in emphasis. Maya looked away and huffed. She knew she had to keep her anger in check. It had gotten worse since she had hit late puberty, but with the help of a therapist she had started to get it under control. Not all the way, but _just enough._

Just enough so that she didn’t feel like digging her nails into her skull and ripping her hair out, just enough so that she didn’t feel like tearing someone limb from limb whenever a person looked at her the wrong way. 

Maya sighed. 

“It’s hopeless.” She paused, looking around the field. “Literally. We lost Hope. I don’t know where she went.” 

“Their quarterback took her out,” Ethan said. His voice grew quiet. “You know, I don’t think he actually knows how to play. When you scored that touchdown a couple of minutes ago he started clapping before his co-captain made him stop.” 

Maya’s eyes flashed at the mention of the brunette she had shook hands with earlier. It seemed like a distant memory, yet she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about it. 

“We need to make _her_ stop,” she growled out, before forcing her tensed shoulders to relax. “She has all of their points.” 

Her eyes narrowed. Face oddly hot and flushed, she started to ramble. “Hey, maybe I should take her out, too. Even the score a little, yeah? Not that that would help. The refs are biased as shit. _That girl_ is wearing at least five different piercings on each ear, but the ref made me take off the hair tie on my wrist. A fucking hair tie? Jesus.” 

Ethan crossed his arms and said nothing, only looking mildly unimpressed. 

“Don’t look at me like that,” Maya told him, scoffing. She trained her eyes on the girl they were talking about, who was standing with her own teammates and celebrating. Out of nowhere, the brunette turned her head over her shoulder and their eyes met. Maya blamed it on a trick of the light. She ignored the glaring sun that laughed in her face. 

“I swear, Than,” she grumbled, “she’s playing with me.” 

Ethan still didn’t look impressed. He leaned forward and furrowed his eyebrows. “And _you_ need to play the _game_.” 

“Without a QB?” Another scoff like a laugh. Her eyes darted to the bus waiting for them in the parking lot. “I’d rather just leave now.” 

Ethan looked down at the ground with a shy expression on his face. 

“What if I played quarterback?” His eyes locked onto Maya’s. They both smiled. 

—

“They’re gonna go deep,” Principal Alaric called from the bench. “Keep your eyes open!” 

Maya smirked and rolled her eyes. _What else are we gonna do?_ Sometimes the man had no idea how to coach. 

She got into her usual position and squatted down with her hands on her knees as she watched #2 approach. She had started calling the girl that in her head, since she didn’t know her name. _#2_. That, and _Pouty Face_. 

The brunette narrowed her eyes as she crouched down well-below Maya’s height, hiking the ball between her legs. Maya, feeling brave or stupid or _something_ , tilted her head to the side with a smirk on her lips. Pouty Face glared at her in return, and then she snapped the football back a second later. 

It fell into the hands of the blonde behind her, who faked to give it to a burly teen and then launched it far into the distance. Maya turned around, but the brunette was already long gone. 

She caught the ball and started doing a dance despite the fact that she was nowhere near the endzone, and Maya sat back on her heels, watching and doing nothing. How infuriating. The girl was practically skipping. 

She snapped out of her reverie when she caught sight of her brother stealing the ball out of the brunette’s hands and running down to their side of the field. She grinned and made way for him. 

Before long, Mystic Falls was back on the scoreboard.

Before long, the ball was in their possession again. 

Before long, everything went to shit. 

Maya wouldn’t be able to remember later exactly what had happened, but if she could try, she would say that one second she had hiked the ball to Ethan, in the next he was drawing his arm back to throw it, and in the last, he was falling to his knees with a scream. 

Her mouth went slack. 

The world went silent. 

_ Everything went to shit.  _


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry, i’ve been really busy with school, but i’m still trying to write so that’s why i’m updating this random crap lol

Maya paced the lobby of the hospital, walking back and forth across the tile, though she felt like she hadn’t moved an inch since she saw her brother break his arm. On the outside, her arms were crossed and a careful mask was placed over her face. Deep down, she was shaking. 

The truth was, guilt clawed at her stomach and her heart and everywhere. It tore her to shreds and ripped her apart from the inside out. 

It was her fault that Ethan had joined the game, it was her fault that he had broken his arm, it was her fault that he would lose his scholarship after everything he had worked for. 

It was her fault that he would never blame her for any of it. 

Maya sighed, sucked in another breath, uncrossed her arms, and stopped pacing. She tried to collect herself, tried to choke down the next wave of tears before she walked outside the hospital to where her mom would be waiting for her. She had already cried far too much. 

Her mom was in the car, anyway, something about having to take a work call, but Maya suspected that she was really on the phone with Principal Saltzman, instead of where her children needed her. Maya rolled her eyes, even as her chest grew tight and a lump formed in her throat, thick and hot. 

Damn it.

She was about to cry again. 

Maya darted her eyes around the lobby of the hospital to distract herself from the urge to cry, stopping short when her gaze fell upon a head of dark hair tied back with a red and black ribbon. Her eyes hardened. The lump in her throat was gone. She wasn’t sad or guilty anymore. Now, she could feel only anger. 

“Hey,” she called out to the girl, her mouth and feet moving together with two minds of their own. “I know you.” 

“No, you don’t.” The brunette didn’t stop walking, didn’t turn back. It was obvious that she was going for the exit. Maya followed after her, feeling petty. Feeling like she wanted to start _something_. A fight, maybe. 

“You’re that girl from the game,” she said. It was enough to make the brunette pause. Her steps stuttered and she froze completely, before turning around to face Maya. 

She plastered on a fake, apologetic smile. Maya hated it. 

“Sorry,” the girl told her, but she didn’t sound like she meant it one bit. “I think you have me confused for someone else.” 

Maya raised her eyebrows, giving the other girl an unimpressed look. She eyed her school football uniform. “Number two,” she read off the front. “You’re still wearing your jersey, you know.” 

The brunette didn’t blink. It only served to unnerve Maya. 

A snarl worked its way up her throat, but she bit it back with a sneer. “Why the fuck are you here?” 

It wasn’t like anyone had gotten injured on the Salvatore’s side. What was the girl doing? Had she come to see the misery she had wrought? Had she come to see Maya cry? 

Probably not, but it felt like it. Right now, her head was pounding and her jaw was clenched tight, and to Maya, it felt like the whole world was against her. Why not just add one more person to the mix? _One_ more person to kick her while she was down? 

A deeper thought rose, then, in a voice half like a growl and half like smoke, telling Maya that this was personal or that she needed to _make_ this personal. She didn’t recognize this voice as her own, and she had to blink to clear the red—gold?—from her vision. 

“I’m not,” the brunette across from her said simply. She stared at her feet, before glancing back up and stepping away. Maya could have sworn she saw her eyes darken, but she wasn’t sure from the distance. “I never was.” 

Maya frowned. What the fuck? Who was this crazy bitch? Acting like she was some looming, ominous presence or something? Maya just had to put her in her place. 

“Okay.” She tried to calm herself down. It didn’t work, especially when the other girl tried to leave again. “Who the fuck do you think you are? I can fucking see you, moron.”

The brunette stopped walking away again and sighed exasperatedly. She spun around and glared at Maya. “You curse a lot,” she observed, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. 

“And you stall a lot,” Maya returned easily. The other girl pouted. For some odd reason, it made the Machado sibling want to know her name. Perhaps it was so she could stop calling her Pouty Face in her head. 

“I’m not stalling.” She crossed her arms. 

“Then why are you still here?” Maya asked, in a moment of bravery, in a moment of weakness all the same. She stepped forward, head tilted to the side, eyes narrowed to slits. For her part, the other girl didn’t back away. She just stared down at the floor, like she was thinking hard or not at all. 

“Oh.” A bitter, humorless laugh like a scoff escaped Maya’s throat. “I know. You’re here because you feel bad.” 

The brunette’s eyes darted lightning. 

“And why would I feel bad?” Her pout deepened. Maybe it was a frown. Maybe Maya no longer knew the difference. 

“Because you’re responsible for what happened to him,” she said, then clarified, “my brother.” 

The other girl froze. It wasn’t too terribly noticeable, but Maya caught it. She fucking _caught_ it. 

“None of this would have happened had your team just thrown the game like you do every other year,” she continued, happy off the feeling of being right, liking the idea that she had stunned the other girl into silence. She couldn’t be further from the truth. 

The brunette unfroze, looking suddenly pissed. It gave Maya pause. Pouty Face’s anger seemed as misplaced as the fake smile she had plastered on earlier. 

“We do _not_ throw the game every year—“ she tried, but Maya cut her off. 

“My bad.” She smirked. “Maybe you just suck at playing.” 

The other girl blushed. Maya felt her stomach flutter. She pushed the feeling away and steeled her gaze. 

“That doesn’t take away from the fact that we won,” the brunette said, emphasizing the last word. “ _We_ won. _You_ lost, you—you loser. So, if we suck, you suck more. _Ha_.”

Maya almost face-palmed, finding the words painful to hear, but not because the other girl was right. It was because Pouty Face was awful at trash talk. Damn it. 

Maya’s secondhand embarrassment must have shown because the other girl glanced uncertainly back at her feet. 

“Whatever,” she mumbled, hugging herself with her hands gripping underneath her elbows. She stepped away again, and this time Maya knew their conversation was about to end for sure. “You’re delusional. What happened to your brother was a freak accident, but that’s not why I’m here. I was just visiting my grandma.” 

She couldn’t meet Maya’s eyes. The Machado Sibling gulped. 

“Oh,” she breathed out. Her cheeks stung. An awkward beat passed. 

“Yeah,” the other girl said, and then she was disappearing out of the lobby doors, and then she was gone, leaving Maya with the deep feeling that she had acted like a complete and utter idiot. 

Still, something was wrong about the girl. Something that rubbed her the wrong way, maybe, or perhaps it was just something she couldn’t place no matter how much she thought about it. 

Whatever it was, Maya was going to figure it out. 

—

“Hope.” Maya went rigid at the sight of her friend sitting on the bench outside the hospital. She thought she saw a broken twig with a leaf in her hair, but she wasn’t sure. “What are you doing here?” 

Hope looked up and stood all the same. When she stepped forward, she seemed kind of hesitant. Like she wasn’t sure if it was okay for her to be here or something. 

“I came to see how you and Ethan were doing,” she murmured. Her eyes flitted to the hospital. “Is he okay?” 

At the mere mention of Ethan, Maya felt like crying again. But she couldn’t. Her tears were all dried out, and the lump at the back of her throat was cold and empty. 

“No,” she said, a little bitterly. Maybe more than a little. She raised her eyes to the sky, in a poor attempt to relax and muster some sort of strength. Any sort of strength. “He’s going to lose his scholarship, and that was his only way out of this god-forsaken town. Seriously, this place is cursed or something. Nothing ever happens here.”

She was babbling, she knew, but she needed something— _anything_ —to distract her from her aching heart, her aching lungs. It felt as though they were both trying to jump out of her chest. 

“Trust me, Maya,” Hope spoke up. It was so sudden that Maya’s eyes snapped to hers. The other girl’s eyes were dim. Maya imagined that the two of them were very far away. That Hope wasn’t truly here, and Maya was both herself but someone else. In this moment it felt like they were strangers, yet closer than they had ever been before. “So much happens here.” 

Maya didn’t know what to say to that, so she didn’t say anything at all. 

“My mom and I are leaving soon,” she changed the subject, shrugging. Her gaze swept around the parking lot. “You need a ride home?” 

Hope’s throat bobbed. Maya didn’t notice. 

“Oh, no,” the girl waved her off, sounding stiff. “Thanks, though.” 

Maya raised her eyebrows. 

“Is someone picking you up?” she asked. “I’ll wait with you until they come—“

“You don’t have to do that,” Hope interrupted, smiling, but her eyes were doing something else. “I’m probably just going to walk.” 

Maya scowled. She didn’t like the sound of that very much. 

“Walk?” 

Hope shrugged. “Yeah.” 

Maya looked around again. The sky was dark and gloomy. It seemed as though it would rain very soon. 

“It’s kind of late. Are you sure?” She glanced back to the parking lot, where her mom was waiting in the car. “I think my mom would be fine dropping you off.” 

“It’s fine,” Hope hurried to say. 

Huh. Weird. Maybe she just wasn’t comfortable pitching a ride in a cop car? No. Maya knew Hope wasn’t like that. 

“Hope—“

“I, uh,” the auburn-haired girl started slowly, “I don’t really have a place to stay at.” The admission took a second to sink in. 

When it did, Maya balked and leaned away, taken aback. The color left her face. “What? But you’ve been here a week.” She didn’t understand. None of this made sense. How could she have been so blind? 

Maya bit her lip. It tasted like bile, or maybe that was just her vomit coming back up her throat. 

“What have you been doing every night after school?” she asked. 

Hope shrugged her shoulders casually. 

“I usually just go for a run,” she said. Maya screwed up her face in confusion. 

“A run? Where?” Maya asked. A brief flash of panic flickered across Hope’s face. Maybe she hadn’t meant to say that. 

“Oh, you know,” Hope gestured around them with a wave of her hand, in place of the words that wouldn’t come. No. Maya didn’t know, and the other girl’s behavior was suspicious, but Maya was still stuck on the fact that Hope didn’t have a place to stay. 

“I—you’re homeless?” she breathed out, trying to shake off her shock. Sure, Maya had suspected something along the lines of it when she had asked Hope for her phone number and the girl had said that she didn’t have one, but not this. Never this. 

Hope shook her head. Her face was a little pink. “I wouldn’t say that.” 

Maya looked at her, then. Like really looked at her, as if she was trying to tear her apart and figure her out with just her eyes. Suddenly, all the questions she had never dared to ask bubbled up her throat and begged to be released. 

“Fine,” she said, at last, taking a step back. “You’re coming with me to my house.” 

Hope’s eyes widened. “Maya, I don’t know—“

“It’ll be fun,” Maya promised, trying to put on an excited smile. It didn’t really work, since she was still upset, but Hope seemed to relax just a little herself. “We can have a girls’ night. Let me just talk to my mom. Can you wait here?” 

Maya didn’t wait for an answer and was already walking away as she talked, though she kept glancing back at Hope as if the other girl might run away any second. “I’ll be right back, okay?” she yelled over her shoulder, checking once again that Hope was still there. “Just wait!” 

She crossed the distance to her mom’s car quickly, tapping on the window to get the woman’s attention, which was on her phone. Her mom hung up the phone after a few seconds and rolled the window down. 

Maya didn’t bother with a greeting. 

“Okay, before you say no, just hear me out, okay?” 

The sheriff rolled her eyes. 

“What, _now_ , Maya?” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Your brother just—“ 

“I know. I know,” Maya cut her off. “It’s about Hope. She’s hopeless—I mean homeless.” 

Her mom raised her eyebrows at that. Maya blushed at the slip-up. She went on, “Do you think she could stay with us until she finds someplace else?” 

The woman huffed out a sigh. Maya knew right away that the answer was a no. Well, at least her mom looked like she felt bad. 

“Stay with us? I’m sorry, Maya, but we’ve been through a lot tonight,” she said. “I don’t think I can handle anything else. Your friend will be fine. I’ll get in touch with the youth services department and see if they have any shelters nearby—“ 

“Mom!” Maya interrupted, looking offended at the mere idea. “She’s not a fucking dog.” 

How wrong she was. 

“Maya!” The sheriff scolded her for her language, but her daughter continued unphased. 

“Please?” she begged. “What if she just spends the night? And I’ll help her find something better tomorrow?” 

Her mom narrowed her eyes in contemplation, and Maya knew she had her. 

“Fine, but no—“ 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Maya squealed, clapping her hands and kissing her mom on the cheek. The sheriff tried hard not to smile. 

“Don’t thank me just yet,” she said sternly, but her lips quirked up. “At least you had the decency not to ask me right in front of your friend like you did last time.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Maya muttered, not really listening. She was already on her way back to Hope. 

“My mom said yes,” she told her, grinning. Hope looked reluctant. It made Maya confused. Wasn’t this good news? 

“Are you sure?” Hope asked. “I can probably just find a shelter or something...” 

She trailed off and let the offer hang in the air, but the words gave Maya pause. They sounded familiar. Had Hope heard her mom a minute ago? 

No. Maya shook her head at herself. It wasn’t possible. 

“I’m not letting that happen,” she said, dragging Hope by her arm back to the car. After the other girl and Maya’s mom exchanged some words of greeting and gratitude, they were on their way home. 

“Hey,” Hope said suddenly, just as they left the parking lot and turned into a secluded road. She leaned forward in her seat, narrowing her eyes through the tint of the window. “Josie?” 

Maya leaned over Hope to see who she was talking about. She immediately rolled her eyes when she caught sight of a yellow jersey and a ponytail. There, on the side of the road, walking by herself, was the brunette from the hospital. 

“You mean Pouty Face?” Maya asked, eyebrows scrunched together. Hope whirled her head around at her. Maya fought the blush rising up her cheeks. “I thought you said you didn’t know—“

“Oh, I don’t,” Hope said quickly, too quickly. “She’s the principal’s daughter, I mean.” 

“Ric?” Maya’s mom perked up from the front. 

“Yeah,” Hope confirmed. She was still sitting up in her seat, trying to peer out of the car. Her seat belt strained against her chest. 

“Why is she walking alone this late at night?” The sheriff asked. She started to slow down the car, which Maya inwardly swore at. 

“I don’t know,” Hope murmured softly. But Maya knew. She wondered if she should say something, but she decided against it when she saw something warm shift in Hope’s eyes. The other girl turned to Maya. “Hey, do you think we could give her a ride back to her school?” 

“No!” Maya rushed to say, at the same time her mom said—

“That sounds like a great idea, Hope.” 

Maya leaned back into her seat and huffed, crossing her arms the best she could with the seat belt biting into her skin. Hope shot her a cocky grin. She was obviously happy with herself. 


	3. Chapter 3

The car slowed down to a stop next to Pouty Face. Maya had to remind herself that the girl’s name was _Josie_ , and not anything having to do with pouts or faces. 

“Hi, honey.” The sheriff rolled down the window and waved with one hand on the steering wheel. Maya shrunk in on herself, wishing that she could sink into a puddle under her seat. God, this was so embarrassing. “Josie, right?” 

Josie glanced warily at the car, but she didn’t stop walking. It was obvious that she felt out of place, or even on edge. A part of Maya knew that she would be nervous, too, especially if a cop car was following her in the middle of the night. 

Deciding that she needed to take advantage and make Josie even _more_ nervous, she reached over Hope and lowered the girl’s window. In the deepest voice she could muster, she bit out, “You’re under arrest.” 

Hope swatted at her and forced her back into her seat, while her mom rubbed tiredly at her forehead. “Maya, knock it off.” 

Maya scowled and crossed her arms like a toddler throwing a silent temper tantrum. Hope rolled the window back up, her cheeks pink. 

The sheriff looked back to the brunette with an apologetic smile. “Sorry about her. Would you like a ride back to your school?” 

Josie shook her head and waved the woman off. “Oh, no,” she mumbled. “It’s okay. I really shouldn’t.” 

She suddenly looked so small. Maya blamed it on the tint of the car window to make herself feel better. 

“Nonsense,” her mom said. “I know your father. I doubt Ric would want you to be walking alone this late at night. It’s really no problem.” 

“My dad?” Josie snapped her head up from where she had been staring shyly at the ground. Her eyes were dark and clouded. “Do you know where he is? I need to talk—“ 

She cut herself off, like she hadn’t mean to say so much.   


“Nevermind,” she murmured softly. She looked down the road both ways before turning back to Maya’s mom. “A ride would be great, actually.” 

The sheriff smiled, eyes twinkling. Maya and Hope shared a knowing look. They both knew that Maya’s mom was just trying to get in good with the principal. 

“Here, babe.” The woman patted the passenger seat and unlocked the car. “Come sit down in the front.”

“Thank you,” Josie told Maya’s mom. 

“You’re welcome,” she said. 

Maya instantly regretted taking the seat next to Hope. She had done it so the other girl wouldn’t have to sit by herself in the back, but that was clearly a mistake, now. She tried to signal her mom to stop and lock the car again in the rearview mirror, but the woman pretended not to see her. 

Instead, she turned the seat warmer on for Josie to make sure she was comfortable. Maya glared at the back of her mother’s head for a few seconds, but she stopped when Josie turned around. 

“You again,” she muttered, shooting daggers at Hope like she hadn’t noticed her before. 

Maya arched a single eyebrow. Hmm. That was interesting. She glanced at Hope to see her reaction and found herself surprised. 

“Me again,” Hope repeated, an odd flush to her cheeks. 

Maya thought that she sounded both miserable and bitter. Her throat bobbed when she swallowed, like she had a bad taste in her mouth. 

Josie chose not to greet Maya at all, and turned back in her seat to look out the window.

  
No one talked. It was awkward.   


A few minutes passed with Maya looking out her own window before she started to hear music flowing through the speakers of the car. 

She glanced over at the front and saw that Josie, for some reason, had felt comfortable enough to lean forward and turn up the radio. She started humming the lyrics of the first song that came on underneath her breath. 

While Maya could admit that the girl sounded good and that her voice wasn’t _completely_ annoying, she couldn’t stand it all the same. She lunged forward over the middle compartment and childishly turned the volume all the way down, sitting back into her seat with a cocky grin.

Not half a minute later, Josie reached over and turned the volume back up, starting to hum underneath her breath again. Maya stared at her in the rearview mirror with a look that could kill. 

As if Josie felt her gaze on her, she snapped her head up and their eyes met through the mirror. Maya could have sworn the other girl’s eyes were pitch black. She immediately looked away, feeling flustered. Her face was hot and she was sure that she was blushing.

She was also a bit terrified. 

Next to her, Hope was a stone statue. Maya wasn’t sure that the girl _hadn’t_ gone into some weird kind of coma, with the way her eyes were glued on the seat in front of her and dead to the world around her. 

She stole another look and saw that Hope’s hands were trembling. Maybe she wasn’t as still as Maya originally thought. She wanted to ask her if she was okay, but not in front of Pouty Face. 

It didn’t take them long to get to the Salvatore Boarding School. Maybe ten minutes. It felt like a lifetime to Maya. 

“Are you sure you don’t want us to take you in a little closer, honey?” her mother asked Josie, who had told them to stop at the gates of the school. 

“Oh, it’s okay.” Josie waved her off politely, already opening the passenger door. She pushed it open and got out with a click. “I can walk from here, thank you.” 

“Of course,” the sheriff beamed, a gentle smile playing at her lips. “Tell your dad I said hi if you see him.” 

Maya rolled her eyes. 

Josie nodded and made a small noise of confirmation, not bothering to say goodbye to Hope or Maya.   


Rude.   


She disappeared through the gates of the school, her hands underneath her elbows as if she was hugging herself for warmth. 

“Maya.” The girl perked up at the sound of her mother’s voice. She tried to pretend that she hadn’t been glaring at Josie through the window. “It’s late. I don’t know if we have food at home. Are you girls hungry?” 

Maya looked to Hope. She wasn’t hungry herself, but she didn’t want to speak up first if Hope hadn’t eaten yet. 

“No,” the other girl said softly. Her eyes were on the school. She looked sad. Maya wanted to ask her about Josie, wanted to ask her about _everything_ , but she also didn’t want to scare her new friend away. “Thanks.” 

Maya cleared her throat and looked back at her mom. Her tongue felt heavier than she remembered. “Same. I’m good.” 

Then, they were on their way home. 

Maya got out of the car first as they pulled up to a small, two-story house. Hope was taking a little bit longer. She had to drag the girl out of the car by her hand, hauling her up the steps to the front door. 

“Nice house,” Hope commented idly, as soon at they got inside, hands in the pockets of Maya’s denim jacket. It made her chest grow warm, but she wouldn’t name the feeling. 

“Thanks. The bathroom is down the hall on the left,” Maya told her, smirking. Her shoulders instantly relaxed at the comfort of being in her own home. “You can take your shower first, I think there should be a towel hanging on the rack already. I’ll bring you something to sleep in.” 

“Oh,” Hope breathed out, looking unsure. Out of place. She shifted her feet from one to the other, almost nervous. “You really don’t need to...” 

“You’re not sleeping in my bed with dirty ass clothes,” Maya deadpanned, but the thought of Hope sleeping in her bed made her stomach flutter. 

Hope laughed. Maya couldn’t help but admire the faint rosy tinge to her cheeks. “Got it.” 

Maya was glad that the other girl just agreed. She was too tired to argue after everything that had happened, especially for something as silly as showering and pajamas. 

Once they both took their showers and were dressed for bed, Maya showed Hope her room. She was more nervous about it than she thought she’d be. 

“So...” The girl threw herself onto her bed and grinned. “What do you think?” 

“It’s...” Hope bit her lip. “Very _pink_.” 

Maya couldn’t help but laugh. 

“I know,” she said. “Mom won’t let me repaint the walls.” 

Hope made a humming noise at the back of her throat and continued to look around the room.

“You have a lot of trophies,” she observed, walking over to a large shelf. “Are they all for cheer?” 

Maya nodded and stretched her arms out on her bed. “Wanna know a secret?” 

Hope glanced over at her curiously, raising a single eyebrow for her to continue. 

When Maya was sure she had the other girl’s interest, she lowered her voice. “I have more trophies than Ethan,” she confessed, as if telling Hope that she was planning a murder. 

Hope shook her head and laughed, loud and hard. Maya soon joined her, but they were stopped by a knock on the door. 

It was Maya’s mom.

“Hi, girls.” She poked her head inside and smiled at the both of them, before turning to Hope. “How was your shower?” 

“Good,” Hope told her, always polite. “Thank you.” 

“Good,” the sheriff echoed back. She glanced between the girls again with a look Maya couldn’t place. “You can sleep in Ethan’s room for the night—“

“Mom!” Maya whined petulantly. Hope tried to hide her snickers and failed. “She’s sleeping in here with me.” 

Her mother narrowed her eyes at them, like she was struggling to make a decision. After a moment, she smiled. 

“Okay,” she said sternly. “But leave the door open, Maya.” 

Maya rolled her eyes with a scowl. She and Hope weren’t like that. Even though sometimes Maya thought—hoped—that they might be. Whatever. They were just friends. 

“Maya?” the sheriff called again, waiting for an answer. She pushed open the door a little more. 

“Fine,” Maya muttered, which was enough for her mother. The woman wished them a goodnight and finally left. 

“We should probably go to sleep,” Maya said with a yawn, after a few seconds of stilted silence. 

She reached over her nightstand to turn off the lights in her room, but she missed the way Hope’s eyes lingered on the action, and the way she flinched when the lights went out.

“I can sleep on the floor?” Hope offered, awkwardly standing by the bed. “I don’t want to—“ 

“Don’t be silly,” Maya cut her off, only to be interrupted by another yawn. She hadn’t realized how truly _exhausted_ she was until she turned the lights off. Her eyes were threatening to close with every passing second. “Come here, H.” 

She patted the spot next to her and leaned back against her pillow. Now that it was just the two of them, Maya felt uncertain. 

She wasn’t quite awkward or uncomfortable, but something in the middle and between it. Maya sighed quietly and rolled on her side. 

She felt the mattress dip as Hope filled in the space next to her, breathing a little more quickly than she expected. She was warm, too. Maya could feel the other girl’s heat spreading over her body like a blanket of its own. 

“Goodnight, Hope,” she murmured softly. A response didn’t come for so long that Maya wondered if Hope fell asleep, then—

“Goodnight, Maya.” 

They were silent for a few seconds. Maya knew she should have been trying to sleep, but she kept her eyes open. Her mind was on her brother. On Ethan. His scream of pain kept resounding in her ears like thunder. 

It was almost like Hope knew. 

“Maya?” she spoke up. Maya nodded even though Hope couldn’t see. Or maybe she could. Maya didn’t know what direction she was facing. “It wasn’t your fault, okay? Ethan’s going to be fine.” 

Hope didn’t know that, and Maya didn’t have a response, so she didn’t say anything at all. Somewhere in the silence, she fell asleep. 

It was only an hour or two later when Maya woke up, feeling like she was about to pee her fucking pants. She kicked the fluffy sheets off of her and swung her legs over the bed, still half-asleep. 

_ Fuck me.  _

Maya rubbed at her eyes and made her way down the hall and to the bathroom through the dark, blindly pushing the bathroom door open.   


She didn’t notice that it was preoccupied, even though the lights were on. When she stepped forward, she tripped over something on the floor and fell straight down, face first. 

Her head landed on a pillow, but it still hurt. 

_ Ow.  _

While she was busy picking herself up, Maya swore she heard a weird, almost _feral_ growl behind her. It freaked her the fuck out. She stood up so fast her head started to spin. 

“Hope?” 

The other girl was turned away from her, a hand clamped over her eyes, her chest heaving. Maya thought that she saw a flash of yellow reflected in the bathroom mirror, but she couldn’t be sure. 

She glanced down at the floor, catching sight of a pink blanket and the pillow she had fallen on top of when she tripped. Her eyebrows jumped to her hairline. 

“Why are you sleeping in the bathroom?” she asked slowly. Hope still hadn’t turned around. Maya didn’t understand why. “With the lights on?” 

Finally, Hope took a deep breath before turning around. The skin of her face was pale, the circles under her eyes more apparent than ever. The gold Maya thought she saw earlier in her eyes was gone. 

Weird. 

“I, um...” Hope looked around the bathroom. Her voice came out rough and gravely. Maya narrowed her eyes in concern.

“I have a hard time sleeping in the dark,” the other girl admitted, at last. 

She looked embarrassed about it, but there was something deeper there. Maya couldn’t figure it out. 

“Oh.” She blinked, surprised. She wondered why Hope hadn’t mentioned it before. She knew Maya would never judge her for it, right? 

“Well,” Maya started, quirking up a smile. “I have a pretty cool Mickey Mouse night light, if you want to come back to my room.” 

She watched Hope for her reaction, but the other girl’s eyes were on the floor. She seemed...anxious. Fidgety. 

“Or,” Maya offered instead, “we can just leave the lights on?” 

Hope smiled, obviously relieved. Her gaze flickered up, her blue eyes catching in the dim glow of the bathroom. 

“Can we just leave the lights on?” she asked, almost shyly, and Maya had never seen that look on her face before. 

She smiled back. “Of course.” 

**Author's Note:**

> might come back to this


End file.
